The Harris Family: Welcome Jackson!

We are so happy to announce the birth of Jackson Keener Harris!

(skip the next paragraph if you don't care about the details and just want the pictures :) )

I went into labor around midnight on Thursday (2/3) and my contractions became more regular (every 2-3 minutes) around 3-4 am. I waited around most of the morning for them to become more painful, per the advice of the triage nurse. I luckily was able to distract myself for a long time by cross-stitching and watching TV. Del had to go in to get his weekly IV infusion of Rituxan which takes 3-4 hours so I was also holding off until he got back. We decided at around 4 pm to go in and get checked to see where I was. Unfortunately despite the fact that the monitors did in fact reflect that I was having regular contractions, I had not dilated past the 3 cm I was already at my appointment earlier that week. So they gave me a dose of morphine and sent me home. The morphine only succeeded in making me super-nauseated though I did get to sleep for a couple of hours. When I woke back up I felt absolutely horrible and was having basically constant severe back pain so I decided to go back. Again they checked me and I had not dilated any further but they decided to keep me and see what I would do. I was able to sit in the bath and that somehow relaxed me enough to get me to 5 cm in the next couple of hours which was far enough to get my epidural around 2 am- yea! At that point I can't tell you how happy I was to have relief from the back pain. My epidural worked so well (the anesthesia resident did an amazing job) that I didn't even feel my contractions and was able to sleep for a few hours (nice since I hadn't slept in 24 hours) off and on. Once I had the epidural my water broke on its own and I dilated really fast to 9 cm by 6 am. My doctor came on (he just happened to be on call that day) and let me labor down for several hours to give him a chance to come down on his own. We also discovered the source of my back pain- the baby was facing "sunny side" up! When baby's are facing the wrong way they put a lot of pressure on your spine and you end up having "back labor" which is just as terrible as it sounds ;) They tried to turn him probably 10 times over the morning (epidural didn't cover that) unsuccessfully. Anyway I started pushing around 10 am and things went really well for awhile. However because he wouldn't turn he stopped progressing. We tried a few different things but he was pretty stubborn. Additionally my pelvis was a little narrow and that provided some extra difficulty for him. Ultimately around 1 pm we decided to use the vacuum since I had been pushing for 3 hours. He did great and came right out at which point we discovered the true problem- everyone had thought he was more like 7 lbs and he turned out to be 9 lbs and 2 0z! It was a good thing I had him prior to my due date because I can't imagine how big he would have been if I had waited to be induced!

He weighed 9 lbs 2 oz and was 22 inches long and is perfect (with the exception of his poor little conehead and the gigantic bruise from the vacuum)! Del was amazing taking care of me- I am a very lucky girl to have such a great husband :) Poor Jackson is pretty jaundiced from the bruise and so in the pictures below you can see what an orange little pumpkin he is! We got home from the hospital today and will go back tomorrow to get his bilirubin level checked as it was kinda high when we were discharged. Also Queenie and Grandaddy Burkhart are coming tomorrow to visit (and for Grandaddy to get cataract surgery) and will get to meet him which we are all excited about.

OK now for pictures...

Last preggo picture prior to delivery- this was taken before the first trip to the hospital :)